Municipal Pesticide-Free Campaign

Ontario is bringing together a group of experts to provide advice on how to prevent bee mortalities.

The Bee Health Working Group will be comprised of beekeepers, farmers, agri-business representatives, scientists, and staff from both federal and provincial government agencies. Drawing on a broad range of expertise, the working group will provide recommendations on how to mitigate the potential risk to honey bees from exposure to neonicotinoid -- a pesticide used for corn and soybeans.

The working group will meet for the first time this month and provide its recommendations by spring 2014.

Supporting the province's agri-businesses while protecting the environment is part of the Ontario government's plan to create a fair and prosperous society.... Read more »

#BlackOutSpeakOut Update

We are just a week away from #BlackOutSpeakOut day (June 4th). I can tell you the campaign momentum is building! The list of participating organizations is over 100 and growing! Maude Barlow just told me The Council of Canadians is also joining the protest. All across the country Canadians are recognizing that silence is not an option in face of the war on nature and democracy.

It has been a busy few weeks here in Ottawa and across the country. People everywhere are talking about devastating changes to environmental law and regulation (Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and Fisheries Act) undemocratically crammed into the federal budget.... Read more »

ST. JOHN’S — Sierra Club environmentalists are appalled the province is doing a helicopter herbicide spray on woodlands this summer using a chemical opposed in neighbouring provinces.

Natural Resources has called tender for charter of a helicopter to apply the herbicide VisionMax in central and western Newfoundland, on about 348 cutovers and young plantations between August and September.

The herbicide has been opposed by the Sierra Club in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with community campaigns in some areas to stop sprays.

This province has been using it since the 1980s, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

While manufacturer Monsanto has described it as a low-risk pesticide, the Sierra Club contends the active ingredient in VisionMax — glyphosate — is linked to respiratory problems, birth defects, miscarriages, cancer and is toxic to fish.... Read more »